


Proud

by HalfASlug



Series: prompts [7]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 17:52:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6480613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalfASlug/pseuds/HalfASlug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Puns are the way to a Time Lord's hearts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Proud

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: meteor shower

A lot of the world saving Rose did involved danger, explosions and inciting planet-wide revolutions. Since she began travelling with the Doctor she had been surprised to find herself being threatened with lasers, being pelted with bales of hay and forced to communicate in yodels for the greater good. As amazing as it all was, it was nice to have a break sometimes.

Today, there was no complicated culture to understand or violent regime to topple. While visiting a nature reserve somewhere in the Andromeda galaxy, they had stumbled across a group of charity workers in a tent. On closer inspection, they discovered a recent rainstorm had damaged the habitat of some of the local animals. Most of the damage had been fixed already, but there were still a few loose ends to clear up.

It turned out that rain on this planet wasn’t like Earth rain.

In fact, it was quite a bit like Earth ink.

“This is fun!” chirped the Doctor. The fuzzy creature in front of him purred as he ran a hose over it. With the hand not holding the hose, he massaged soap into its stained fur.

Rose scratched her own creature behind its long ear. Everything about the creatures was long. They looked as if a rabbit had been crossed with a dachshund and then stretched until it was around four foot. “What are they called again?”

“Meetyurs.”

“Meetors?” Rose tried.

“ _Meet-y-urs._ ”

“Meetyurs?”

The Doctor grinned at her and his meetyur splashed some water on his shirt. Rose did her best to not notice how it now clung to his chest. He’d already taken his jacket off and rolled his sleeves up. The meetyurs were adorable and sociable animals, but there was only so much distracting they could achieve.

“So this whole thing,” she said, nodding to the tall and lilac-skinned locals and the meetyur-filled basins they were surrounding, “is a meetyur shower?”

The Doctor did a double-take.

Rose poked her tongue out the side of her mouth.

“Did you just-”

“Maybe.”

A smile crept its way onto his face. He then surprised her by throwing his head back and letting out a full belly-laugh.

“All right. It wasn’t that funny.” Rose glanced around at the others who were now giving them curious looks. Her meetyur had hidden behind her arm in fright.

The Doctor didn’t seem to notice. Or care. “Oh, Rose Tyler, it was.”

She felt herself blushing under his proud gaze and busied herself showering her meetyur. “Wasn’t.”

“Just because you say something isn’t funny,” he told her seriously, “it doesn’t meteorite.”

Rose dropped her hose with a groan. “That… that doesn’t even work!”

Trying to be annoyed with him was no good. His stupid grin was all over his stupid face and, if he didn’t stop, she was going to stupid snog his stupid stupid.

_Where was she going with this?_

It became even harder for her to remember what she was trying to say when she was suddenly engulfed in a hug. She squeaked as she felt the warm water seep through the back of her top.

“As much as I love hugging you,” she said and the Doctor hummed happily, “why are we hugging right now?”

He pulled back enough to see her and the teasing nature of their exchange was lost as his smile softened. “It was an excellent pun.”

Rose scrunched her nose up. “Hug worthy though?”

To her horror, he dropped his arms and stepped back with a cough. “Sorry. I thought you wouldn’t mind so-”

“Hey, hey, hey, I don’t mind.” She pulled him back to her and hugged him around the waist. “Just wondered why s’all.” Her words were mumbled against his chest in the hopes he wouldn’t notice how panicked she’d been by the loss of contact before.

He shrugged. “I was proud of you.”

“Because of that pun?”

“No.” The Doctor looked away. When he met her eye again, she saw the trepidation there. “I’m always proud of you.”

Overwhelmed by the the tenderness in his voice, she stood on tiptoes and pulled him closer still. At the last second, she remembered where they were and _who_ they were, and managed to kiss him on the corner of his mouth, instead of on his lips like she’d originally intended. Afterwards, she buried her face in his neck, avoiding his gaze.

Though her loss of control frightened her, his reaction was to rest his head on top of hers. The gesture made her feel safe and loved and, even as her heart thumped against her ribcage at thought of how close she’d come to spoiling everything, she doubted she could ever regret it.

 


End file.
